Madonna and Child with Saints Andrew, Benedict, Bernard, and Catherine of Alexandria with Angels [entire triptych] – (Agnolo Gaddi) ◄ Previous Next ►

Artist: Agnolo Gaddi

Date: 1387

Size: 197 x 80 cm

Technique: Tempera On Panel

This altarpiece is made up of three panels, with a woman and baby sitting on a throne surrounded by winged angels at the center and flanked by a panel to either side that each shows two people standing under pointed arches. The background across all the panels is gold, and the top of each panel comes to a triangular point above. Spiraling columns frame and separate the sections. The people and angels have pale or deeply tanned skin, and wear robes in silvery-white, pale pink, celery green, crimson red, or pale yellow. They all have plate-like halos, which overlap for some of the angels around the throne. The floor across all three panels is patterned with gold against a burgundy-red background. The central panel shows a woman, Mary, wearing a lapis-blue robe, propping a standing baby up in her lap with both hands. The baby wraps one arm around her neck and grips the neckline of her dress with the other. The twelve angels around them look on from the sides or from small groups in the lower corners. Above the pointed arch over the throne, a bearded man is shown from the chest up in a shape of three lobes alternating with three points. That man faces us and holds up his right hand, to our left, with the first two fingers raised. He holds up an open book with Latin text with his other hand. In the panel to our left, two men with tan skin and gray hair and beards stand with their bodies angled toward the central panel. The man to our left holds a tall wooden cross and the man to our right holds up an open book with Latin text with one hand and a bundle of rods with the other. The gable above has a circle carved into its center. In that roundel is an angel inside a four-lobed quatrefoil, shown from the waist up facing our right. In the right panel, a man with tanned skin and a woman with pale skin stand under pointed arches. The man, to our left, holds and looks down at the pages of an open red book. To our right, the woman holds a palm frond in one hand and a closed green book in the other, and she stands in the circle of a wooden wheel lined with black spikes. The roundel above the pair shows a woman and a dove inside a four-lobed quatrefoil. Inscriptions appear with gold letters against a gold background across the bottom of each panel, so are difficult to make out. The panel to our left reads, “S. ANDREAS AP L U S; S. BENEDICTUS ABBAS.” Under the central panel, text reads, “AVE MARIA GRATIA PNELA DOMINUS.” The third panel reads, “S. BERNARDUS DOCTOR; S. K TERINA VIRGO.” Latin in the two books held outward is also legible. The book in the leftmost panel reads, “AUSCU LTA.O FILI.PR ECEPTA .MAGIS RI.ET.IN CLINA.AUREM CORDIS.T UI A MONITIONE M.PII.PA TRIS.LI BENTE R.EXCIP E.ET.EF.” In the central panel, the Latin inscription reads, “EGO SUM A O PRINCI PIU FINIS EGO SUM VI A. VERITAS VITA.”